Großer Kurfürst
One of the last stages of a battleship design for the German Navy. The ship was fitted with triple main turrets designed at the outbreak of World War II. The project was developed based on combat experience and featured powerful torpedo protection, enhanced horizontal armor and more advanced AA guns. Pros: * Like the Montana she possesses a heavy broadside than is capable of destroying ships in one volley * Fast at 30 knots * Extremely good turret traverse of 40 seconds before captain skills or upgrades * Very large secondary battery with range starting at 7.5km * Bow is heavily sloped, only a lucky Yamato shell can penetrate it * Unrivaled health pool of 105,800 HP, bested only by the 108,300 HP of Kremlin. * Has the German Hydroacoustic search, with extended range making her functionally immune to longe range torpedo strikes * Ridiculously durable; can endure severe damage to either close the gap or to get away to heal * Ergonomics are similar to dreadnoughts; the closer she gets, the more dangerous she becomes. * 50mm deck makes her immune up to 203mm IFHE and British AP shells at long range * Citadel is turtlebacked and is also located under the waterline, making it extremely hard to hit at close range * Decent anti-aircraft suite that can kill anything below tier X but her AA is bubbled in a such away that it leaves her vunerable to dive bombers and rocket planes. * Very good shell velocity. * Looks like a Cadillac, hits like a Freight Train ( or Cargo Ship, depending on your perspective ) Cons: * Very tempting target due to her being the biggest ship in the game; any decently accurate strike such as dive bombers or cruisers can reliably hit her * AA guns are easily destroyed under sustained fire. * Lowest range out of her peers at 20.61km. Only Kremlin is worse. * 420mm guns have a reload of 32 seconds, it is tolerable. But that extra 3 seconds could be costly as compared to the 406mm guns. * Decent rudder shift is marred by poor turning circle and long response time. * Bow and stern deck armor is only 32mm, making her vunerable to an IFHE Equipped Harugumo or any of the USN Light Cruisers she will face, if not to say of others. * Huge superstructure allows for massive HE damage * Very prone to be set on fire. CAs will shell you with with impunity. * Turrets are poorly sloped so can be disabled by large caliber shells at close range. Yamatos will frequently cause jams with their AP. * About as subtle as a Cadillac. * Turns like a Cadillac, too, which is to say, not very good. As the Top of the German Battleship Tech Tree, Grosser Kurfurst makes a very strong impression with both her gorgeous, windswept lines and tremendous firepower. Kurfurst was one of the original high tier battleships released into the game, following the initial release. Little has changed of her since that time, and she still performs admirably, even in the current HE-Spam heavy light cruiser camping meta. Her armor is one of her greatest assets. While her primary belt is not the solid sheet of steel found on Montana or Yamato, her 380mm turtleback means that the only way to effectively get through is to hope she shows full broadside and smack her on the head. Even then, she'll only take full penetration damage, which heals back better than citadel damage, and with her ability to heal back a huge amount of her hitpoints thanks to her positively titanic hitpool (even more so with the signal flag "India Delta") per charge, she's impossible to take down if soloing her. She also has a 50mm deck that allows her to shatter 152mm IFHE for days. However, she does have a couple of flaws. First, Her extremities are 32mm only, which means she's vunerable to said 152mm IFHE. Second, there are a lot of heavy cruisers with IFHE ( Henri IV ) or even Large Cruisers ( Azuma, Yoshino, etc. ) that can punch through that 50mm deck like it's a piece of paper ( and it's not hard, given her enormous size, she's larger than Yamato!). Lastly, her torpedo defense is a pathetic 25% Reduction, which means that any DD in her matchmaking spread is guaranteed a flood or two if they strike in the right place. Still, it's not like she's totally vunerable, either, especially considering the fear factor that she generates with her weapons. Her armament is so ridiculous, its not even funny. She pack 12 406mm rifles in a 4 x 3 layout that makes even engaging her either dangerous at the least, or fatal at the worst. She has the highest DPM at her tier, with a 29 second reload on her stock rifles, but that quickly drops to 32 seconds with her upgraded ones, for whatever reason ( Because WG Balans ). She does, however, have a specialized legendary module that can bring her reload down to parity with the stock Republique, with much better DPM to boot, and brings her 420mm guns to levels that no other BB in her matchmaking can even consider surpassing ( maybe the Montana, but she's still slower ). ( MBM3, AR, or Legendary ) And then there are the secondaries. Hooooooooo BOY, these things are brutal. First off, they have an insane 7.8 Km stock reach, that can get out to 11.6 KM with the appropriate upgrades and commander skills ( AFT, Secondary Battery Modification 2 ). Secondly, she has LOTS of guns to use. On each side, she has 10 x 128mm rifles in 5 dual turrets that are backed up by a pair of twin 150mm turrets. With the appropriate upgrades, she can pull off a 2.8 second reload on her 128mm guns and a 4.7 second reload on her 150mm guns, becoming even more nightmarish if you throw Adrenaline Rush into the mix (BFT, AR, MFCS, SBM3 ). If you throw that special Manual Fire Control for secondaries into the mix, she becomes even more brutal, capable of shredding a destroyer in a matter of 10 to 20 seconds. You can even throw IFHE on there to make that sweet as sin 1/4 Caliber penetration rule on German HE, just that much sweeter. Her AA power is nothing to be laughed at either. Even with the CV Rework, she can reliably shoot down equal tier or lower-tier aircraft, thanks to an insane long and medium range bubble that makes attack runs extremely costly. However, her AA is mostly concentrated into her 38-mm autocannons, which quickly fall apart under concentrated HE fire. That leaves her 28-mm cannons and her Dual-Purpose 5-inch guns as the only reliable method of taking down enemy aviation. If you want to concentrate into an AA-focus build, then Auxiliary Armaments Modification 1 is a must. Her maneuverability is another big issue. Yes, she can achieve a top speed of 30 knots, which is quite impressive for a battleship of this size, and her rudder shift time is quite good for a battleship, a trademark characteristic of German BBs. However, she is slow to respond to rudder commands, and her 1 Kilometer turning radius makes her one of the least agile ships in the game, with only Moskva and Stalingrad being worse. This issue is further compounded by her absolutely titanic detection radius of 18.1 KM. The best she can achieve is around 14.5 KM, and this is noteworthy considering that there are ships just as large with a smaller detection radius, with Conqueror capable of fitting out to just a hair under 11.5 km with full concealment. All said, Grosser Kurfurst is one of the most durable, capable, and formidable battleships in the game. She has more HP than Yamato, better DPM than Republique, and can outduel a Montana any day of the week. In short. You run into this thing... let's just say your day is about to get a whole lot worse.Category:Germany Category:Battleships